Beer: Ratings & Reviews

Reviews by pbrian:

4/5 rDev +14.9%look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Brown, slightly murky appearance. Sweet malt with a little sweatsock aroma that turns spicier as it warms. Firm malt flavor with a real nice spice yeastyness. They say it bridges the gap between a pale ale and porter. I say it bridges the gap between an American brown and Belgian double. A thought provoker.

More User Reviews:

Appearance  Dark ruby brown with a decent head that went down quick and clean.

Smell  Roasted malt with what seems to be some slight smoke. Theres also some type of nut in there as well.

Taste  The nuts come out more in the taste, especially at the finish. Until then, the dark roasted malts make up the backbone of this ale. Theres also some dry, bitter hopping to this one making it quite interesting.

Mouthfeel  Some good carbonation and a smooth blend made this one feel good in the mouth.

Drinkability  Not particularly well-rated by my fellow BAs (whose opinions I greatly value) but I kind of liked this one (and Im not a real brown ale fan). I thought it went down well and wont shy away from picking up a six-pack every now and then.

Dick Danger Ale is a beer tough to classify, bridging as it does the gaps between brown ales, porters, and other styles. This is good news; a beer from Dick's that is truly original. Many of Dick's other beers seem to follow a homebrew recipe to the letter, without much thought or creativity, and with fair-to-middling results. Those other beers suffer in comparison to their style-mates; this beer works very well, largely because there is nothing to compare it to. It pours a deep reddish muddy brown, with small head and faint but sturdy lace. Sweet toffee aroma of doppelbockish malt. The beer has a lot of flavors going on, mostly from malt, and evokes the taste of Irish red, porter, doppelbock, English brown ale (with nuttiness and butter), and American robust brown ale (with brown sugar and maple syrup). It's a pleasantly convoluted mess, and the result is a really sweet, malty beer that is severely curbed by a near-invisible hop quality -- there's some herbalness and a flicker of citrus on the tongue, but there's hardly any lasting bitterness. Dick's trademark overachieving rotten-fruit yeast is also thankfully in short supply, although you'd do best to pour the bottle carefully. One of the better beers from Dick's and the one that created their whole business.

A dark amber red brew with a strong fluffy head. Lacey and play sand colored the cap lasts for the duration of the brew. A very pretty colored brew.

Nose is a little disappointing, kind of sweet smelling with touches of fruit. I was hoping for more of a malt but it never fully materialized.

Taste goes in a much better direction. The sweetness in the nose carries over to the flavor but it is more then balanced by malts. Tart bit of fruit and nut finish. Quite nice.

The mouthfeel is very smooth and silky. Light carbonation makes for a medium body and an almost buttery feel. A decent english brown ale that could use some more malt in the flavor and nose departments but still an easy drinker. Worth checking out.

Man, did I get a bad bottle or something? I couldn't find a freshness date, but my bottle shop generally does well with moving stuff in and out in an appropriate time. But this was kind of nasty. I've been drinking a lot of brown ales lately, and this was a huge disappointment. Especially since I like a lot of Dick's other stuff.

The beer looked great, deep ruby brown with little light passing through, save for what was radiated back out with a nice red glow. The head came up fast and sparse, but soon died back to a more respectable dense foamy offwhite thing that left some web-like lacing on the glass. I was excited by the look. The smell was nice, with some sweet malt, smokiness, and fruit. Still excited. Then I had a sip. Not good. I had a gulp. Even worse. It tasted almost metallic. Is that this beer's version of hops? The rest of the flavors followed this in just a mess of unidentifiable flavors. The mouthfeel was unpleasant, and after a few good gulps my lips felt like I had been drinking rubbing alcohol. I pouored half of it out, as this beer really didn't want me to drink it.

So seriously, I want to like this beer. I want to support this company. I hand-washed my pint glass and let it air dry immediately prior to pouring the beer. So i know it wasn't anything in my glass. Did I just get a nasty bottle? Somebody whole likes this beer, please send me beermail and tell me if i should try it again or if everybody else who is rating this so highly is just nice. Thanks. Wonderful Sam.

This beer appears a dark burnt amber colour, with one finger of foamy white head, which leaves a broken wall of lace around the glass as it slips away. It smells of lightly roasted grain, and earthy, weedy hops. The taste is biscuity, toasty malt, a bit of toffee, and earthy hops. The carbonation is fairly low, the body medium weight and smooth, and it finishes off-dry, the roasted grain sweetness and drying hops still playing off one another.

A: The ale is a dark brown color, amber as I compare it to the bottle it was stored in. The head was HUGE, over 4 fingers with a billowy and fluffy. The head retains long into the beer and laces extensively.

T: The initial impression on the tastebuds is toffee malts mixed with smoke. The smoked aspect is fleeting but adds an element of depth to the ale. That depth is needed because, as the toffee fades, a rather unexciting malt body emerges. It is thin and never really goes anywhere, which is a shame because the first sip has near-limitless possibility.

M: The mouthfeel is immemorable. Nothing good or bad sticks out, which I guess is a good thing.

D: Drinkable, but there are so many other beers out there that I'd rather have.

Dark brown with red highlights, one inch of tan head, modest lacings. Aroma is herbal hops.Taste is rich dark chocolate, coffee, roasted malt, and enough hop bitterness to make it interesting. Normally avoid browns as too sweet and bland. This is neither. Not a hop-bomb but a nice drinkable brown that leans toward the stout side and not too sweet. Much better than average for the style.Mouthfeel is good.Drinkability is very good.

pours mahogany with a off white head which fades to wisps of foam lining the edges.
Aroma is chocolate malt with cascade or some other PNW hop variety .I get some alcohol
Taste is maltiness with some crystal and subtle roast then the hops steps forward to dry out the finish.
Mouthfeel was a little thin but not watery
well balanced and enough hop character to keep it interesting
I had it with a combo pizza it worked well with the onions and peppers!

pours a lustrous dark ruby brown with a fair one-finger khaki head that fades fairly quickly, leaving behind just a bit of sporadic lacing. a good bit of murky haze shows up when held to a light, along with some garnet highlights.

medium body with a bit of syrupy slickness. ample carbonation is just a bit fizzy and rough, just enough to be a bit unsettling and verge on soda-like. feels a bit messy and unrefined.

All in all, not horrible, but neither a stellar brown ale nor the best offering I've had from Dick's. It's got a few funky fruity and earthy notes that make it interesting, but they don't really succeed in making it enjoyable. After finishing this one, i really have no desire for another. which is too bad... i really wanted to like this one.

The beer as it sets in my glass, just a Breathin Away, is a limpid mahogany with a spectacular light tan head that is frothy in texture with the resultant lace a thin veil to cover the glass. Sweet malt dominates the nose, vanilla like, fresh and clean, with the start nicely malted and sweet, top is fair to middling in feel. Finish is meek in its carbonation, the hops pleasing and pleasant to the palate, with a somewhat tart aftertaste that is also quite dry, and a drinkable beer.

Had this beer on tap at a pizza joint. Very drinkable and good for chasing down the food. This beer pours a dark reddish color with a thin head which dissapated quickly but the beer was sufficiently carbonated. This beer has a malty smell but when you taste it the spicy hop flavor really comes out. There is also a hint of fruity esters from the yeast detected. I rate this beer as fairly adequate if not pretty bitchen.

A - Kind of put off on the pour alone. Way too much carbonation that gives me 2+ inches of head filling my English pint glass to the rim. Waiting for it to settle never happens since it's constantly fed by tons of bubbles. Head and beer looks dark very porter pitch black like for an English brown. Head is an opaque colored almost mocha with tons of lacing (to be expected for the carbonation)S - Smell has a lager like consistency some harsh grains, somewhat metallic. Very little nuts or chocolate that I expected for the style.T - Very metallic even after warming it up a bit. Has a sort of lager yeast skunky ness and very little sweet malts. Kind of drinks like a poorly made black lager.M -Light to medium in body. Metallic and somewhat bitter.

Overall I was intrigued going into this since the style wasn't listed on the bottle. Pours like a porter, drinks like a black ale, and has the metallic twang of a poorly made macro lager. Not sure what it's trying to be but it's definitely not a brown ale... Pretty much bought it for the name and now I can say it sucks dick.

On tap at Taproom 307 in NYC; pours very dark brown, almost black in color, until it's held up to the light when some orange shows through; it had a creamy 2 finger tan head that faded slowly, leaving very good foamy lacing clinging to the side.

Tastes like it smells, with sweet malt, citrus hops, grapefruit, caramel, toasted grains, light coffee, cocoa, and faint burnt or roasted wood; it tastes good, but is exactly like the smell and mellow and smoky with a little hop bitterness.

Mouthfeel is light and creamy, with very light carbonation, a body on the lighter side and watery flow as it goes down and finishes with a dry smoky finish. A good session beer that was enjoyable but a little on the basic side regarding flavor, still it was well balanced and easy to drink.